Dwyane Wade Joins Lebron James in NBA Free Agency Along with Chris Bosh by Opting Out of Their Miami Heat Contracts

 

Lebron James, Dwyane Wade & Chris Bosh All Opt Out of Their Miami Heat Contracts to Test NBA Free-Agency

Lebron James started took the lead as he opted out of his contract with the Miami Heat a few days back and now the dominos have fallen to include Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Udonis Haslem all joining teammate LeBron James in opting out of their contracts. This will create an NBA-record $55 million in salary cap room for the Heat, but all players are expected to sign back with the Heat rather then be lured elsewhere. 

Wade and Bosh met with James on Wednesday night in Miami and came to the decision to opt out of their contracts. The three discussed their contract situations since 2006, when they all decided to pass on five-year contracts to sign three-year deals with separate teams, setting them up to be free agents together in 2010. And we all know what happened in 2010 and the rest is history. 

In 2010, James had meetings with several teams before July 1, so he is expected to start meeting with the Heat and other teams to give him their best sales pitch. 

Wade, Bosh and Haslem are all represented by Agent Henry Thomas, who told ESPN he spoke with Heat president Pat Riley on Saturday to inform him of Wade and Haslem's choices. Bosh has not officially informed the Heat of his decision, but is expected to Monday's midnight ET deadline.

"Dwyane has been the cornerstone of our organization for over a decade, and we hope he remains a part of the HEAT family for life," Riley said in a statement. "Udonis has been the heartbeat of this team for 11 years. He has sacrificed countless times to make this organization successful, and he is the epitome of what this organization stands for. We look forward to meeting with Dwyane and Udonis and their agent in the coming days to discuss our future together."

The money on the table looks like this: Wade will opt out of two years and $41.8 million, Bosh will opt out of two years and $42.6 million, and Haslem will not exercise his player option of $4.6 million.

All 3 players, plus James, seem willing to take some sort of a pay cut if it means that Riley can bring in some more talent to help boost their roster. The Heat have been specifically looking at Toronto Raptors free agent point guard Kyle Lowry.

Norris Cole might be on the trading block for the Heat after they drafted point guard Shabazz Napier on Thursday night. This would clear Cole's $2 million salary off the books.

 

 

Tags : Dwyane wade Dwyane wade free agency lebron james lebron james 2014 lebron james free agent lebron james free agency lebron james free agent 2014 Dwyane Wade Lebron James Chris Bosh Chris Bosh free agency 2014 Chris Bosh free agent miami heat Miami Heat 2014 Miami Heat free agency Pat Riley Wade Bosh James James Wade Bosh MIami Heat nba nba free agency free agency nba 2014 Chris bosh 2014 Dwyane wade 2014 Dwyane wade free agent 2014 free agent lebron james free agent lebron james 2014 lebron james money lebron james salary lebron james contract lebron james contract 2014